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Two Muslim Brotherhood members sit in front of barbed wires as army soldiers keep watch during clashes with Republican Guards in Cairo yesterday.
CAIRO: At least 51 people were killed yesterday when the Egyptian army opened fire on supporters of ousted president Mohammed Mursi, in the deadliest incident since the elected Islamist leader was toppled by the military five days ago.
A late night announcement by the interim head of state said Egypt will hold new parliamentary elections once amendments to its suspended constitution are approved in a referendum, setting out a timeframe that could see a legislative vote in about six months.
Protesters said shooting started as they performed morning prayers outside the Cairo barracks where Mursi is believed to be held.
But military spokesman Ahmed Ali said that at 4am (0200 GMT) armed men attacked troops in the area around the Republican Guard compound in the northeast of the city.
“The armed forces always deal with issues very wisely, but there is certainly also a limit to patience,” the uniformed Ali told a news conference, at which he presented what he said was video evidence, some of it apparently taken from a helicopter.
Emergency services said 435 people were wounded.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood urged people to rise up against the army, which they accuse of a coup to topple the president. The movement’s leaders are calling for peaceful resistance, but the risk remains of fringe elements pursuing a violent agenda.
At a hospital near the Rabaa Adawiya mosque where Islamists have camped out since Mursi was ousted, rooms were crammed with people wounded in the violence, sheets were stained with blood and medics rushed to attend to those hurt.
“They shot us with teargas, birdshot, rubber bullets — everything. Then they used live bullets,” said Abdelaziz Abdel Shakua, a bearded 30-year-old who was wounded in his right leg.
Bloody scenes from Cairo, three days after clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi protesters across the country claimed 35 lives, have alarmed Egypt’s allies, including Israel, with which it has had a US-backed peace treaty since 1979. REUTERS
